Hidden In Plain Sight
by AlwaysDarkestBeforeTheDawn
Summary: You'd really have thought that Itex would have tightened the security by now, but mutants are still escaping. These mutants have powers that make them dangerous to Itex, but also to the world.
1. Let Freedom Reign

**Let freedom reign. The sun has never set on so glorious a human achievement- Nelson Mandela, May 10 1994.**

From where they huddled, hidden in a tiny, claustrophobic space, Melissa and Byron could hear the Eraser's footsteps getting closer. There was a crack between the door and the floor through which they could see the Eraser's shadows as the creatures searched the apartment.

Melissa was crouched on the floor, her ear pressed to the door in an effort to hear more, while her pseudo-brother Byron sat on the ground as far away from the door as possible, leaning his head against the wall.

Adrenaline fueled Melissa, as she slowly stood up. "I'll distract them," she whispered, her voice barely a whisper. "Meet you at that cafe I forget the name of."

Byron glanced up at her. "No, you are not going to distract them! Melissa, you-"

Melissa ignored him and opened the door, stepping out and looking around, counting the Erasers. There were five of them, along with two white-coats. Melissa waved at them, and then bounded down along the hall, away from the closet where Byron was hidden. The Erasers were frozen for a moment, obviously confused as to why she was taunting them. Melissa prayed that they wouldn't realize that she was distracting them- but Erasers weren't the smartest of creatures, and almost immediately began chasing her down the hall, which was luckily only wide enough for them to go single-file.

Melissa darted through the kitchen, picking up a few things on the way as she headed for the door. The Erasers had stationed a white-coat there, whose eyes widened as he spotted Melissa. Melissa smiled, and punched him in the eye. Hard.

She then punched him again just on his jaw, hopefully breaking it, and kicked him in the gut, cachievement

Melissa headed right once she was out of the apartment, managing to reach the far end of the building before the lead Eraser caught her, pinning her in a headlock.

Melissa yelled out, and twisted, struggling to get free. The Eraser called back to the others, who were rapidly catching up.

"I got her!"

Melissa yelled loudly, and tried to hit the Eraser into a wall. It didn't work. She could hear the Erasers approaching. Whatever she was going to do, it would have to be fast.

Melissa jabbed an elbow into the Erasers stomach. His grip loosened slightly, but he didn't let go. That didn't matter. It was enough.

Melissa twisted round until she was facing the ugly Eraser. She smirked, and held up the pepper spray. She sprayed it in the Erasers face, and then pulled free of his grip as he began to shout.

The rest of the Erasers were within grabbing reach,white-coat and Melissa raced over to the large window at the end of the corridor. It was an old one, jammed closed, and Melissa had to shatter the glass in order to escape. She was climbing through when she heard a shout- "Wait!"- and instinctively turned to look back.

A white-coat was standing beside the Erasers, who were arranged around their fallen comrade. "Please," the white-coat said. "We don't want to hurt you. We want to help."

Melissa sneered. "I like my organs where they are, thank you very much," she told him, and threw herself the rest of the way out the window.

She and Byron lived on the twelfth floor of the apartment building, and as she spiraled down Melissa had plenty of time to unfold her huge wings. She caught an updraft and was pulled higher into the air, the rain soaking her in a few seconds. She coasted for a while, circling in the air in front of the apartment building so as to ensure Byron's safe escape, before she landed near the Eiffel Tower and folded in her wings again.

Her legs shook as the adrenaline left her body, and she was barely able to walk as she crossed the busy street and pushed her way through throngs of tourists to meet Byron. She hoped he had got out okay.

* * *

><p>Byron was waiting for Melissa at the cafe as planned, and he looked mad. His crutches were leaning against the wall, and he had his 'worried' face on. As soon as he saw Melissa, his 'worried' face was replaced with his 'angry' face.<p>

"What the hell did you think you were doing?" he hissed at Melissa as she sat down. "You could have been caught, or killed, or-"

Melissa held up her hands in a 'Stop Everything' motion as she sat down at the table. "Calm down, Byr, I'm fine." Well, except for the bruises on her neck, but she chose not to mention those. "And it worked. We both got out."

"That doesn't mean I have to agree with it." Byron scowled at her blase attitude. "Mel, that was the most brainless thing you've ever done. Except for the thing with the missiles in Tokyo."

Melissa smiled at the memory. The Erasers hadn't known what had hit them.

The door swung open again, and Byron stiffened almost imperceptibly. "Eraser," he whispered to his not-sister. Melissa didn't turn to look. She trusted Byron's judgement. "Act natural," her friend advised as the Eraser went up to the clerk on duty and showed him a photo, speaking rapidly in French.

"What is he saying?" Melissa breathed.

"He's asking if he's seen the teenagers on the photo."

"And?"

"The clerk is saying no."

"Who is on the photo?"

"I don't know. I can't see it."

"Do you think he's looking for us?"

"Almost definitely."

* * *

><p>Izzy sat at the table, her head drooping over the cold coffee she had ordered, but never drank. Her arm still ached from a close encounter with an Eraser two days ago, and every time she moved it a twinge of pain ran up her body.<p>

Izzy absentmindedly where she was going to sleep that night. She had only reached Paris that day, having spent the last two weeks in California, and still had no idea what_ hotel_ was in French.

She shivered slightly as the door was opened again and a cold wind blew through the entire cafe.

The sky outside was a dark grey color, and it had been raining almost all day. Izzy was hoping that it wouldn't storm- if it did, she wouldn't be able to fly, and if she couldn't fly, then she couldn't escape.

Izzy wasn't sure what to do now that she was in Paris. She had come here planning to find more like her, but the other mutants were proving to be elusive and skilled at hiding. Izzy wasn't sure if that was a bad thing.

She took a drink of coffee, and grimaced slightly- it was like tar. She set the cup down again, and looked out the window at the Tower as it began to rain again, lightly at first, and then heavier and heavier, forcing the tourists to seek shelter.

One of the figures running for shelter caught Izzy's eye. The man was by far the tallest in the street, and he had broad, ugly features that seemed more canine then human.

It was an Eraser. And he was heading for the cafe where Izzy was.

His eyes were bloodshot and his face was covered in long, ugly red scratches that looked even worse in the fluorescent lighting as he stepped inside the cafe. Izzy was careful to act natural, while her mind spun. What should she do? Fight or flight? Or should she just stay there and pretend she wasn't a mutant?

The Eraser paused as he walked past her, almost as if he was sniffing the air. Izzy readied herself to fight, but before she could do anything the Eraser was walking on again, heading up to the counter, where he showed the clerk a photo.

"_Je suis avec la police. Avez-vous vu ces adolescents?_"

The clerk squinted at the photo as Izzy watched him over her coffee cup. "_Non_," he answered. "_Je crains que noin_."

"_Si vous le faites, s'il vous plait contactez nous. Je vous remercie_." The Eraser put the photo back in his pocket. There were only four other people in the cafe- an old woman, a couple sitting by the window and a girl so thin she looked like a human skeleton. The Eraser looked at everyone carefully, including Izzy, before he left. Izzy breathed a quiet sigh of relief, wondering who he had been looking for. Whoever they were, she pitied them.

She pulled on her cardigan as she prepared to leave, deciding not to finish the horrible coffee. The rain outside had finally stopped, and she decided to use this brief dry period to find a hotel. Hopefully she would find some mutants tomorrow.

* * *

><p>Adelaide couldn't help it- she flinched as the Eraser walked past her, carefully looking at everyone in the cafe. The Eraser stared at her for a long time before turning away, and when he finally left, Adelaide breathed a sigh of relief.<p>

The girl with the long blond-brown hair got up to leave as soon as the rain stopped, and so did the dark haired couple that had been sitting by the windows. Adelaide stayed where she was, keeping an eye out for anymore approaching Erasers. She would have preferred to be in London- at least there, most people had spoken English. Here, she had no idea how to ask for food or money, or how to find an abandoned building to spend the night in.

Adelaide yawned, and took another look around the room. Other then the clerk and the old woman who was muttering to herself, the cafe was empty, cups of coffee left untouched. Adelaide had to agree- the coffee was horrible. Her adopted mother's coffee had always been so much nicer.

Stop, she ordered herself. Don't think about that. Think about something else.

Her thoughts turned to the Eraser. Why had he been here, of all places? Was he looking for her? But no... if he had been, he would have recognized her when he'd stared at her.

But if he wasn't looking for her, did that mean he was looking for other mutants in the area? Did that mean there was more mutants in Paris? Adelaide wasn't sure if she wanted the answers to these questions to be yes or no. If there were other mutants here, then maybe she wouldn't be alone. But if there were other mutants here, that also meant that the Erasers would be prowling the streets- and at least one of them would recognize her. And they would find her, and catch her, and bring her back to the Lab-

Adelaide was never going back to the Lab. She would rather die first.


	2. All Men Dream

**All men dream, but not equally- T E Lawrence.**

There was no rain falling in New York- the sky was bright overhead as the promised dry spell finally arrived. Everything looked set to be a bright, happy day- except for the fact that Aria and Arion were busy planning how best to kill their parents.

Their parents lived in a suburban house just outside the city. The twins had planned this down to the second, so as to be sure that their parents were at home when the time came.

It was six fifteen in the evening. Aria blurred up the driveway, her super speed ensuring that she arrived in a few seconds. She placed her hand flat on the wooden door, and waited for a moment. The poison lurking in her body sank into the door, eating away at it until there was a small, roughly circular hole the size of her hand in the wood. Aria stuck her hand through the hole, and reached around to open the door from the inside. There was a pause as the handle jammed momentarily, but then she was in, swinging to the door open to let her brother Arion in.

Arion followed her in, keeping a watchful eye on his older sister as they made their way into the kitchen. No one was there, but dirty dishes were heaped up by the sink, and the smell of burned meat hung in the air. Arion paused to 'rescue' a knife from the stacked up pile of dishes before the twins continued into the sitting room- where their parents sat on the couch, innocently watching television. Their father looked up- and froze as he saw the two dark-haired teenagers lurking by the door.

Aria moved first, blurring between the door and the couch until she stood beside her biological mother, who stared up at her with fearful eyes. Aria reached down, and pressed a hand to her mother's shoulder, smiling. There was a pause before the mother began to scream, loudly, the sound full of agony. Aria allowed herself a smile at the fast acting poison. It was times like these when she was half-way glad that the Institute had seen fit to force her to drink that chemical.

Arion preferred a more hands-on approach, as he, very carefully, drove the kitchen knife up under their father's ribs, up to his heart. He put all his hate, all the pain he had stored up over the years, all the anger, into the thrust, and was unsurprised when his father died almost instantly, his breathing choking off with a weak gurgle.

Their mother took her time to die, as she held on to her life. "Please!" she begged, her body writhing as the poison made its way through her system. "Please!"

"Please what?" Arion asked, crouching down in front of her. "Please _what?_ Please save my worthless life? Please save me so I can sell more children to scientific freaks?"

Aria laughed quietly, somewhat surprised at how much better this made her feel. "Do you remember us?" she asked her mother, bending down. "Do you remember me and Arion? Do you remember your children?"

Their mother's eyes grew wide. "Ar-" she began to say, cutting off her own sentence with a raw, pain filled scream.

_"Do you remember?"_ Aria yelled. "We spent our lives in a laboratory like _monsters_ because of _you_, because you wanted to _make some money!_ _You deserve to die_! You are lowlifes, scum, vermin! You are the freaks, not us!"

The woman drew in a rattling breath. Her coffee-colored skin was a dark, nauseating green. "Ar- ya," she tried. "Ar-" she paused to hack a cough, pieces of red, bloody flesh coming up with it. "Ar-yon. I'm-" her eyes rolled up into her head. "Sosorry," she finished in one breath. "Sosorr-" Her breathing choked off.

Arion threw his sister a look. "Hear that?" he sneered. "She's _sorry_. That makes everything better, doesn't it?"

Aria surveyed the living room. Their father lay slumped over an arm of the couch, his blood staining the white leather. Their mother was collapsed against the back of the couch, her skin a light yellow and covered in a light sheen of sweat.

"Well," Aria said. "Killing them made us feel better."

Arion laughed. "Yeah," he agreed, dropping the knife on the carpet and stepping over it. "It did that."

* * *

><p>In the end, Byron and Melissa found an abandoned building in which to spend the night. It was dark by the time they got there, the clouds hanging low overhead as they ducked inside. The building was huge, with rats darting around near them. Bats fluttered above them, and Melissa scowled, waving her hands above her head. "If they go anywhere near my hair," she muttered under her breath. Byron ignored her.<p>

It was a three story building, and Melissa and Byron climbed up the rotting stairs to the highest floor, which took a while due to Byron's crutches. The main reason for staying so high up was simple- Melissa might need a quick way to escape, and this was the simplest solution.

Parts of the roof had fallen in, and Byron and Melissa had to wind their way around piles of rubble to reach a relatively dry, clean space to sleep on. They finally found one, just underneath one of the remaining pieces of roof. Melissa collapsed on the ground, sprawling against one of the walls as she yawned widely. Byron stayed standing, absentmindedly rubbing his leg as he looked around at the desolate slum they were temporarily living in.

"I'll say one thing," Melissa volunteered. "It's tidier then back home."

Byron raised one eyebrow, which was his version of laughing uncontrollably. Byron wasn't exactly the stoic type- he just didn't think other people were worth talking to.

"It is," he said. "Isn't it?"

The walls were covered in graffiti, the ground covered in rubble and dust and abandoned building tools. Melissa got up to inspect abandoned jackhammer left lying on the ground. Byron kept an eye on her- last time she had been near mechanical equipment unsupervised, she had blown up several houses and killed about twenty four Erasers. Melissa's eyebrows still hadn't fully grown back.

Melissa stretched, and glanced back at Byron. His face was perfectly still as he stared at an unnatural shadow that had been cast on the floor. Melissa paused, scanned the walls, and flicked her eyes back to watch Byron's face.

There was a movement behind Melissa, almost too quick for her to track, and she swung around to face the opposite wall. She flicked a glance back at Byron, as a shape darted out of the shadows and slammed into her full speed. Melissa was shoved backwards, shuddering as a shock of electricity raced through her body.

Melissa hooked a leg around her attacker's foot, and pulled, tripping him to the ground as she scrambled to her feet. The boy was about her age, thirteen or fourteen, with chestnut brown and green bangs falling over his face. Wolf ears stuck up out of the top of his head, and Melissa had to try not to laugh at them. She was glad that her DNA didn't provide such obvious clues as to what she was. Melissa retreated back a few steps, pushing Byron behind her as the boy got to his feet again.

Eraser? Melissa wondered. There wasn't time to ask Byron, as the boy took a step forward towards her, and Melissa had to act. Everyone else is expendable, she reminded herself. Survival is all that matters.

The boy punched, and Melissa ducked, her hands snapping up to grab the boy's hand, and throw him over her shoulder. Byron moved smoothly aside as the boy crashed into the boy's hand brushed against Melissa's ankle, and another shock ripped through her body, so that she shuddered. She kicked the boy in the face as he tried to get up, and darted backwards.

Melissa snapped her wings open, and glanced at Byron. "Ready to go?"

Byron shrugged. "This place was too good to be true."

Melissa bent down and picked up the jackhammer, smashing it into the boy's head, before she sighed. "We'd better leave now, then."

* * *

><p>Adelaide crouched on one of the unfinished beams of the building, watching the dark haired girl fight the brown haired boy, while her brother just watched with a blank expression on his face. It made Adelaide feel slightly better to know that there were other mutants here in Paris, but the girl's behavior alarmed her. The boy had done nothing to elicit such a violent reaction, and the girl had basically beaten him up and then knocked him out with a <em>jackhammer<em>.

The girl dropped the jackhammer and picked up her backpack, slinging it on her back while her brother picked up his crutches. The girl allowed the boy to go first down the stairs, following him down while keeping an eye on the unconscious boy.

Adelaide watched them go, torn- should she follow them, maybe meet them? Should she stay until the boy woke up? Or should she leave?

Adelaide was lonely. She had been ever since her mother had died, and the thought that there were people like her so nearby made her feel better.

The boy groaned slightly. The blow the girl had given him had been enough to kill him- Adelaide was surprised he was even still alive. Deciding that she didn't have the patience to wait perhaps days for him to wake up, Adelaide jumped down from where she had been hiding. She landed as quietly as she could, before she followed the brother and sister down the stairs.

Neither were talking, the only sound the steady _click _of the boy's crutches and the sound of rats running around the shadows. Adelaide followed the duo, wondering if she should introduce herself, or maybe wait until the girl had calmed down.

Adelaide didn't want to get hit with a jackhammer. She decided to wait until the girl had calmed down.

* * *

><p>Izzy booked into a hotel to spend the night in. It was a loud storm outside, wind whipping against the windows and thunder crashing. Rain lashed against the roof, and lightning flashed. Izzy spent some of the night on the laptop she had stolen from the Lab in Paris, looking through the files of mutants in the country. About seven of the files belonged to escaped mutants, and Izzy focused on these.<p>

The files were updated often, and the most recently sighted mutant had been twins- Thunder and Lightning. The Lab had sent Erasers after the twins, but the pair had escaped- somehow. Izzy herself found it hard enough to evade Erasers. She couldn't imagine how two four year olds had managed it, unless they were traveling with others.

The lightning crashed outside again, and Izzy could distantly hear music in the room next door. Frowning slightly at the disturbance, Izzy shut down the laptop, and collapsed into bed. She was asleep before her head hit the mattress.


	3. A Violent Freedom

**Violent means will give violent freedom- Mohandas Ghandi**

Melissa was nearly humming as she followed Byron down the unlit footpath. There was still a steady drizzle drenching the duo, and the thick grey clouds above obscured any sign of moonlight.

Byron was a few feet ahead of her, silent as always, his crutches clicking steadily on the ground. His coat was slick with rain and his hair was flat against his head as they walked. Melissa was pretty sure he was mad at her about the jackhammer incident.

She smiled as she remembered. The Eraser hadn't known what had hit him. The jackhammer had been a stroke of pure _genius_, if she did say so herself. One of her better moves.

Her thoughts were brought to a halt when she heard something behind her. Melissa stopped immediately, cocking her head to the side and listening hard. Byron continued ahead of her, while Melissa turned in a slow three-sixty circle to watch around her.

Byron paused, and glanced back at her, his face white in the gloom. "Mel? Are you okay?"

"Did you hear something? Just now?"

Byron shook his hair out of his face, frowning. "You think something's here?"

Melissa cast a last glance around her and then hurried to catch up with him. "I think we should get to the hotel as quickly as possible. I-"

There was a crashing and a yell behind them, back near the apartment, and Melissa grabbed onto Byron's arm, pushing him along. "Come on. Let's get out of here, now."

Byron didn't argue with her. They sprinted down the street, as fast as they could with Byron's limp, towards the sole working streetlight. Melissa was scanning the surrounding area, her body on autopilot as she felt adrenaline rush through her.

They reached the pool of warm golden light, and Melissa let go off Byron, allowed him to prop himself up against the light while she glanced back up the street. There were three Erasers there, emerging out of a smaller side-alley, propelling a thin, female figure between them. Melissa noticed the girl's wings at the same moment she made her decision.

"Stay here, alright?" she told Byron distractedly. "I gotta go- beat someone up with a jackhammer."

Before he could answer and tell her how unbelievably stupid her idea was, she took off running towards the Erasers. She was two meters away when the first wolf-man noticed her and turned to face her. Without stopping, Melissa ducked under his first punch and came up behind him, wrapping an arm around his throat and ramming his head repeatedly into the wall of the building next to them. Blood covered her hand as the Eraser's nose broke. Once she thought he was unconscious, or at least incapacitated, she moved onto the next Eraser, who was coming at her. The third Eraser, the one holding the girl by the neck, looked like he was considering making a run for it.

Melissa faked a kick towards the next Eraser, but turned it into a step and then a punch. Her fist caught the Eraser on the hinge of the jaw, and Melissa felt a rush of satisfaction as the Eraser yelped in pain. She followed her punch up with a knee to the groin, and shoved him into the third Eraser. Once the wolf-men were sufficiently distracted, Melissa grabbed the girl by the wrist, punched Eraser Number Three in the throat and pulled the girl away.

The two girls raced towards the streetlight, where Melissa had left Byron. He wasn't there now, and they continued on, splashing through puddles of filthy water as they turned a corner rapidly and ran for the hotel and the end of the road.

The hotel was rundown, with a weakly flickering neon light and grimy windows, the type of place Melissa and Byron usually stayed at. Melissa and the girl were in the door in seconds, nearly running into Byron who was waiting for them there. The man behind the counter didn't bat an eye at the two disheveled girls, one of whom looked more like a skeleton than a human and the other who had blood staining her hand.

"You okay, Mel?" Byron asked Melissa, paying zero attention to the girl.

"I'm fine, Byr. You shoulda seen me- I grabbed the Eraser, see, and then I shoved him into a wall. Repeatedly. I think I broke his face." The siblings set off upstairs, paying no attention to the rescued girl, who trailed after them. Then I punched someone in the face." Melissa looked at the blood on her hand, her smile bright. "It was awesome."

"I'm sure it was," Byron said dryly as they turned down an ugly mustard-colored hallway. Their room was Room One-Sixty-Five, next to a room where all they could hear was the steady clicking of someone typing on a laptop. In the room beyond that one, Melissa could hear the distant strains of music.

Byron unlocked the door to their room and swung it open, allowing Melissa and the girl to precede him into the room before he shut it and relocked it. Melissa collapsed onto the first bed she saw, and shut her eyes, smiling. "Tonight was fun."

Byron cleared his throat, and gestured towards the girl, who was standing awkwardly beside the sagging, leaky couch. Melissa opened her eyes and looked at the girl. Her hair was stringy and greasy, her eyes glassy and empty, her skin so pale it was almost grey. Her cheekbones looked like razors about to cut through her skin, and her ribs were visible, even through her clothes. She looked like something out of a very, very high-quality horror film.

"You were at the cafe earlier," Melissa realized, thinking back.

The girl nodded silently.

"Are you okay? The Erasers didn't hurt you or anything?"

The girl shook her head. Melissa was at a loss as to what to say next. She wasn't too good with people- well, she wasn't good at _talking_ to people. She was good at attacking people, threatening people, and menacing people, but talking? Not so much.

Luckily, Byron was there. "You want some food or something?" he asked gently. Her brother could be ever-so-charming when he wanted, and the girl nodded, smiling tentatively. She reminded Melissa of a broken doll, something in the way she stood, silent.

"Sure thing," Melissa said cheerfully. "I'll order pizza."

"Only good idea you've had all night," Byron said. Melissa stuck her tongue at him and went to look for a phone.

* * *

><p>As Aria and Arion left their parent's house, Aria was practically skipping, buoyed by their success. She was whistling as well, a fact that annoyed Arion, but he decided to let it slide, just this once.<p>

"So," Aria said cheerfully as they crossed the carefully kept garden. "What's the plan for the rest of the day?"

Arion shrugged. "What do _you_ want to do?"

Aria considered the question. "Go eat," she decided finally. "I. Am. _Starving_."

Arion tried to remember how long ago it had been since they had eaten. Not yesterday, nor the day before... maybe four days ago? Now that Aria had remarked on it, he realized that he was famished as well. "McDonald's, here we come."

Neither of them noticed that they were being followed.

* * *

><p>Izzy was woken only an hour later by the sound of newcomers coming up the stairs and along the hall. She scowled in annoyance as she sat up- she was exhausted, but she doubted that she would be able to get back to sleep.<p>

In lieu of sleeping, Izzy pulled the laptop towards her, and clicked onto the files. No updates.

The music next door was getting louder now, so gradually Izzy barely noticed it. She noticed it now, and frowned. She stood up and crossed to the wall, pressing her head against the mouldering wallpaper- _ew_, she thought- to get a better listen.

It was like nothing she had ever heard before- she could hear so many different genres of music in the sound, rock and pop and rap and classical and folk-music and metal and-

Izzy was feeling slightly light-headed Jerking her head back from the wall, she went to sit back down on the bed, lost in thought. There was something not quite right about that music, she thought.

She made sure to put in earphones to block out the sound before she went to sleep.


End file.
